Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Epitaphs) for Wednesday, March 9, 2022 (Season 38, Game 128):
Her epitaph, from a 1925 poem by her, ends, “She knows that her dust is very pretty”; “dust” was in another she wrote for herself
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Sallie Bieterman, an actor & museum educator originally from Seattle, Washington
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Shelley Vinyard, an environmental advocate from Washington, DC
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Maureen O’Neil, an executive assistant from Rye Beach, New Hampshire (2-day total: $21,000)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: New Hampshire’s Maureen O’Neil won her second game yesterday, rebounding from her $2,200 total on Monday with $18,800 yesterday. Today’s challengers are Shelley Vinyard from DC and Sallie Bieterman originally from Seattle.
Another thought I had, which came about from Ken saying “No harm, no foul” after all three players got a clue incorrect on yesterday’s show: in my opinion, “no harm, no foul, you all lost the same amount” is a more egregious statement to make in a Jeopardy! context than “Single Jeopardy” is. Because everyone losing the same amount of money, in most cases, affects the proportionality of the scores, one player is inherently harmed more from it, as it may lead to one or more players being in a worse position in Final Jeopardy.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: Who is Dorothy Parker?
More information about Final Jeopardy: (The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2022 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
American humorist Dorothy Parker, a famed member of the Algonquin Round Table, ended her 1925 poem “Epitaph for a Darling Lady” with “She knows that her dust is very pretty”. Her more famous self-written epitaph: “Excuse my dust”.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round categories: In Recent News, The Apollo Program, Literary Character Spoilers, Furniture, 3-Letter Movie Titles, “Cat” Got Your Tongue
Maureen went 3/5 in 3-LETTER MOVIE TITLES in the opening segment and parlayed that into a $3,000 lead after the opening 15 clues.
Post-interviews, Sallie found the Daily Double immediately, but couldn’t even hazard a guess; meanwhile, Shelley had a strong back half of the round, and nearly caught Maureen by the end of it.
Double Jeopardy! Round categories: So That’s What They Looked Like, From the State Song, 3 Consecutive Consonants, Dynasties of China, Names in Pop Culture, Eponymou Body Parts
Unfortunately for Shelley, she was unable to identify Grandma Moses, and sunk $4,000 on a Daily Double. She recovered to take the lead midway through Double Jeopardy. However, Sallie picked up the final Daily Double—getting this one correct—and Maureen picked up the final three clues to take a slim lead going into Final. Scores going into Final were Maureen at $9,000, Shelley at $8,800, and Sallie at $1,500.
Methodical play, and 16 Triple Stumpers, among our players today led to six unplayed clues—but at least they were at the $200 and $400 levels?
In Final, Maureen was able to solve what a lot of people in the comments weren’t able to in a single-solve Final Jeopardy, becoming a 3-day champion!
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, March 9, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Maureen $9,000
Shelley $8,800
Sallie $1,500
Tonight’s results:
Sallie $1,500 – $100 = $1,400 (Who is Edna St. Vincent Millay?)
Shelley $8,800 – $4,000 = $4,800 (What is Plath?)
Maureen $9,000 + $9,000 = $18,000 (Who Dorothy Parker?) (3-day total: $39,000)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Maureen $3,800
Shelley $3,200
Sallie $200
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) LITERARY CHARACTER SPOILERS $600 (clue #16)
Sallie 1400 -1400 (Maureen 4400 Shelley 1000)
2) SO THAT’S WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE $800 (clue #5)
Shelley 5200 -4000 (Maureen 6600 Sallie 200)
3) DYNASTIES OF CHINA $1600 (clue #22, $6000 left on board)
Sallie 1000 +500 (Maureen 6600 Shelley 8800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -152
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: THE APOLLO PROGRAM $200 “CAT” GOT YOUR TONGUE $200
DJ! Round: FROM THE STATE SONG $400 3 CONSECUTIVE CONSONANTS $400 DYNASTIES OF CHINA $400 EPONYMOUS BODY PARTS $400
Total Left On Board: $2,000
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 44 (0.34 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Maureen $9,000 Coryat, 13 correct, 1 incorrect, 25.49% in first on buzzer (13/51), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Shelley $12,800 Coryat, 13 correct, 2 incorrect, 27.45% in first on buzzer (14/51), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Sallie $4,000 Coryat, 10 correct, 4 incorrect, 21.57% in first on buzzer (11/51), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $25,800
Lach Trash: $20,400 (on 16 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $5,800
Maureen O’Neil, career statistics:
47 correct, 6 incorrect
4/6 on rebound attempts (on 15 rebound opportunities)
27.85% in first on buzzer (44/158)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,533
Shelley Vinyard, career statistics:
13 correct, 3 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
27.45% in first on buzzer (14/51)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$4,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,800
Sallie Bieterman, career statistics:
10 correct, 5 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
21.57% in first on buzzer (11/51)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$900)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,000
Maureen O’Neil, to win:
4 games: 27.152%
5: 7.372%
6: 2.002%
7: 0.544%
8: 0.148%
Avg. streak: 3.373 games.
Today’s interviews:
Sallie got an unexpected raccoon guest at her birthday.
Shelley rode a bike from Austin, TX to Anchorage, AK in college.
Maureen has attended 5 different colleges.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- While going all-in from the lead isn’t as egregious in a game this close, because if you’re betting to cover, you’re probably going to lose anyway if you’re wrong, it’s probably still best to bet as little as you need, just in case.
- Kudos to WXVT for sticking with Jeopardy! and not airing the Champions League pre-game show.
Final Jeopardy! betting suggestions:
Maureen: Standard cover bet here is $8,601.
Shelley: To stay ahead of Sallie, you should bet no more than $5,799.
Sallie: Your maximum bet today should be $1,099, to stay ahead of Maureen in case she’s wrong.
Link to the box score: March 9, 2022 Box Score
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
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I missed today’s Final Jeopardy. I could only come up with Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
I thought they must be dusty, too.
I guessed Emma Lazarus as well.
Would not have given the correct answer to that one in a million years 🙁
This is a very tough FJ – one has to able to recall the “excuse my dust” pun of Parker in 30 seconds and stick with that answer while eliminating other women poets of the era (Parker is someone one thinks of as a wit rather than a poetess).
I agree with you on both counts, but an FJ! is supposed to be difficult and one of the three got it right even after not knowing many others that day — only one incorrect, but I think her buzzer percentage would have been at least somewhat higher if not for presumably not buzzing if she didn’t know the answer.
Well, I didn’t say super difficult, just difficult. But it goes with Single Jeopardy in general being less difficult than Double Jeopardy, then Final being fairly difficult. That even follows the pattern of the lower priced clues being less difficult than the higher priced ones. [Of course, per person, that may be negated by how much they do know or not know about the category, but I said “in general”]
For weird categories, I don’t understand contestants putting “hunting for DDs” ahead of asking for the first clue first in order to get a feel for the category before risking big money on the last clues.
It also seems to me that in many cases when one finds a DD, in deciding how much to bet, they seem to be relying on how much money they already have and what the category is (and perhaps, if well into the game, how much their rivals have) and never on whether it is a higher priced clue (so probably fairly tough) or a lower priced clue that probably will be a bit easier.
And another reason for doing the lower priced clues first “the traditional way” is not risking yourself losing much or your rivals gaining much while you get the hang (rhythm?) of using the buzzer
https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/headstone-and-inscription-revealed-for-writer-dorothy-parkers-new-grave-in-new-york-city/
Thanks for the link (-:
Ken is definitely better than “No harm, no foul.” But he’s also better than Mayim Bialik.
“No harm no foul” was always said by Alex and you can’t say anything against Alex.
Richard:
I criticized Alex’s use of the term every time he used it during his own hosting. I’m allowed to continue the criticism.
3-game winner without even landing on a single Daily Double. Also, Maureen has not come in tops at first in buzzer % any of the 3 days.
Has to be pretty rare.
Is it my imagination, or are more clues being left on the board these days?
It’s not your imagination.
I wish they would just always play the full board, and just edit the show tape to make the game fit into the allotted time (trim out some of the dead time on the triple stumpers, or cut out the recap of the previous game, etc.)
I don’t remember there being any criticism of Matt Amodio when he made a similar Final Jeopardy bet in his first game, so I hope not to see any of Maureen’s wager. (By criticism, I mean attacking her; I don’t have a problem with arguing that it wasn’t technically the most optimal wager.)
Is “Who Dorothy Parker” truly in the form of a question?
Per the rules of the show: Yes. It is.
As a Baltimorean, this was fairly easy as it was a local big deal when Dorothy Parker’s new headstone was revealed last year following her remains being moved from Baltimore to New York a year earlier. In fact, the longer excerpt from the poem replaced, “Excuse my dust,” as the inscription on the new headstone.
As for the use of “No harm, no foul,” I don’t find that to be all that egregious. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one. It never bothered me when Alex said it and it doesn’t bother me now when Ken says it. For those of you who are so bothered by it now, were you so opposed to it when Alex said it? Just sayin’.
As for Charles’ comment on “Who Dorothy Parker?” would you have preferred “What’s Dorothy Parker?” Just kidding. That’s how Matt would have phrased it if I recall correctly.
It doesn’t bother me either
Ditto. As a very math-able person I am “all about” percentages (COVID rates, for example), but to me when a question comes up, EACH contestant who “goes for it” (even in the first buzzer attempt which only one will win) is aiming for adding that exact amount and risking losing that same exact amount REGARDLESS of how much money they currently have (or anyone else has). [How often have we seen people FAR ahead quit trying to get more in order to no longer risk losing any? Ever? Even near the end of DJ! when one contestant has very little money, they will rarely refrain from buzzing in order to ensure they don’t go negative, even though they could possibly win FJ! with very little money if they are correct and no one else is.] So I, too, see it as “no risk, no foul” when they all three go for it and no one gets it right.
OOPS! I meant . . . So I, too, see it as “no harm, no foul” when they all three go for it and no one gets it right.
The writing of today’s final bothered me. The most immediate antecedent of “another” is “poem”, not “epitaph”, which changes the meaning of the clue. In retrospect it’s odd to say she wrote a poem for herself, which makes epithet more likely, but it’s not fair, frankly, to require that kind of parsing in 30 seconds. Sloppy at best.
I did not get it, although I was an admirer of Dorothy Parker (for her wit) in my younger days.
Current FJ streak – 2L 🙁